Perkins chides Dems over 'God'

When the Democratic Party’s platform initially removed a reference to “God,” that was no oversight, Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, charged on Monday.

“I think that a lot of people question whether or not it was oversight, or whether it’s a reflection of the president and his party and this call for the separation of church and state,” Perkins said on CNN’s “Starting Point.” “… It’s not a separation of church and state. It ultimately is a separation of God from government. I think that’s what we saw in the Democrats’ original platform.”

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At the direction of President Barack Obama, the platform was updated during the convention to include references to “God,”and Democrats have downplayed the word’s earlier exclusion — along with controversial language concerning Jerusalem — as “oversight.” But Perkins argued that similar “oversight” didn’t occur on party planks relating to abortion and same-sex marriage.

“When you super-size government with cradle-to-grave programs, I guess it’s kind of a challenge to make room for God on the tray,” he said, adding, “Nobody … two days into the convention, [said,] ‘Oh, Mr. President, by the way … we forgot to put in that we support unlimited access to taxpayer funding of abortion,’ or, ‘Oh, Mr. President, we forgot to put in that we support the redefinition of marriage.’”